The age-old question, isn’t it?

Art can get expensive and even if the budget in not a concern, you still need to know what to pick and how to put it in your home.
I’m gonna focus here mainly on framed art (painting, print, photos etc), but many of the principals apply on any type of decorative object or piece of art.

My first rule is: Art has to have a story.

Interestingly, we usually expect artists to have a (deep) meaning behind their art, and value those who do more. I don’t think art has to have a meaning or an underlying purpose other than just simply to exist.

That being said, i do think that the special pieces we decide to adopt in our home should have a story. A story to you.

A story doesn’t need to have anything to do with what the artist intended to say, it can be what it means to you when you first see it, or just where you got it from. A nice interaction with a small shop owner can make an otherwise grey object suddenly shine with colour and life.

2. Mix and match

If all your art looks the same, it can easily fall flat, no matter how much money or thought you have put into selecting it.
Try to find pieces from different time periods (vintage pieces can also be more affordable at flea markets), and different mediums or techniques (pair a painting with a photo or an etching). This will add dimension to your composition and make it much more designed.

Here you can see a vintage etching i found at the Hamburg flea market in the wildest weather. It is an extra point that it’s a round frame to change up all the rectangles i have going on.

3. Consider the placement carefully

An art piece in a weird and unexpected place just hits differently. You can use these objects strategically to cover up something (an ugly metal door that is randomly placed in your living room), distract from something or to accentuate an interesting feature. Don’t shy away from rooms like bathrooms or kitchens that are a little more utilitarian, you will see the improvement.

4. Play around, it doesn’t have to be perfect at first

In fact, it will never be perfect. A room, a home is always evolving and so does the art in it.

If you are unsure what you like yet, or what might work (size, colours, style), you can try out some prints (yeah I said it :) from those big sites). It is an easy an relatively affordable way of testing stuff out before you commit to an investment piece. I still have a couple of them up and some might even stay for forever.

I would say the key here is to look for special collaborations or featured artists, they usually have a separate section.

I got a print like that for my bathroom. Because the high humidity I didn’t want anything fancy. And since I started following the painter on insta, and we connected on a couple of moments so now that print has a special meaning, a story and I never want to part with it.

An other good low commitment source is postcards from museums you visited. There’s automatically a story involved, it costs very little and will be a nice addition to any gallery wall.

5. My craziest suggestion yet: make your own

If you haven’t picked up a paintbrush since school, I’m telling you, you’re missing out. Get some basic paint and just put some colours on a canvas, make a date out of it and just create something. It doesn’t even have to be good. You can always paint over it, if you don’t like it but you might be surprised of how recharging it can be and who knows, maybe you’ll end up with a masterpiece.